I am pleased to say that the Vancouver School Board has organized anaphylaxis training for all Supervison Aides who work for their district.

Suprvision Aides are employees who usually work from 10:00am to 1:00pm, supervising children at recess and lunch. They often do not have access to as much training as other school employees, and for children with LTA's, they are very important. Most children eat their snacks outside at recess under the supervison of these employees, and it is Supervision Aides who are monitoring the children when they eat at lunch, then after lunch on the playground.

If a child was having a reaction to food, or a sting, these employees would probably be first on the scene, it is great that the VSB has taken this step.

Yesterday was our monthly PAC meeting. I attend meetings when I can and do not hold a PAC council member position. We're new to the school system, our ana son just turned six on Sunday and he is in kindergarten. I'm trying to find out how it all works. I had to miss this meeting because my husband caught our daugher's cold and was not in any shape to look after our kids. Our school has been very supportive of our son's anaphylaxis. Currently, their request for no nuts is for his classroom only. His the only student with a LTA. We are under the 2% average.

We had two incidences at school yesterday, the latter is an incident in my opinion and may not be to others. Again, we had a teacher on call. Unfortunately, my stuffy head cold husband who does school drop off before he rushes to drop our daughter at day care then onto work (bless his heart), forgot to ask the TOC if she was familiar with the signs of anaphylaxis and if she knew how to use an epi-pen. He has had to do this with every TOC we've had - because they are not required to have this training. Our teacher informs them of the ana in the class room etc but the epi-pen stuff has been up to us. Anyways, the TOC training issue most everyone else has as well hit us up side the head.

Second, the TOC decided to do something new - let the kindergartens participate in recess outside with the rest of the school. I would have preferred advance notice of this. I am all for them going out at recess but this has only happened once before and with prior notice. We prepared our son for what to do if he comes into contact with his allergens or doesn't feel right when at the playground. He's six. He needs reminding about all kinds of stuff. Yesterday we didn't have a chance to do this. Thankfully, I have a happy ending to this story. It is coming soon.

So our son tells me about his day. I extract information from him, while trying not to become unglued, so I can speak to the principal in the morning.

When I spoke to our principal this morning we discussed the issues and with satisfactory resolution. She also informed me that last night at the PAC meeting, the PAC was discussing, on their own, our principal did not bring the subject up, what is going to happen when our son becomes more main stream in the school next year, in grade one - on the playground, there for lunch. The principal and two teachers were also in attendance. They decided on their own, without a request from us - to have an allergy aware school and request that all students not bring his allergens to school. Same as no soda pop re: healthy schools initiative.

I had already made an appointment with the principal to talk about grade one. The appointment is not until next week. We have always asked respectfully for support and and now it's coming fulll circle. Our school community is truely amazing.

I know this in no way means our work is done, as parents of an ana child, and without the needed legislation in BC, we still have to do most of the leg work for now but the job just got a little easier.

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